0956 – The ‘Plonking’ Speech Pattern

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2023.08.14 – 0956 – The ‘Plonking’ Speech Pattern

Plonking speech pattern

Symptom: This is when a reader doesn’t know which word to highlight in their intonation, so they do it either randomly or, like a metronome, on every fourth word (or the last word in every SENTENCE). It’s also what politicians do when they want to give the impression of strength and certainty. Rhythms are lazy and show the reader is in a rut. Catch episode 273 and 274 for more on this.

Prescription: Listen to people talking in conversation, when they naturally lift the correct words for meaning. Then replicate those ‘conversational rules’ onto written news scripts, and mark them up correctly. Work out the context of what you are saying: what makes the story (or the ‘sell’), a ‘story’? what words do you need to colour in some way by lifting or subduing? A poor rhythm doesn’t make you sound authoritative, in fact it makes it sounds as though you don’t know what you’re talking about. Plonking is for plonkers[1].

· I have a whole possibly unique series on how to work out what words to lift or subdue, from episode 283, that I’d highly recommend you listen back to.

[1] A ‘plonker’ is a slang British term for a foolish or silly person.

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